Day 10 - Dealing With Hard People

If we truly follow Jesus, we too will take up our cross, so to speak, exposing ourselves to the possibility of even more shame (Matthew 16:24). We'll be more involved with more people - people who we may disappoint, people who may turn hostile, people who may aggravate old wounds. It can become emotionally draining at times and we will feel heaviness. We may even feel like "fainting in our souls."

      However, we can’t allow ourselves to hold back from loving others and being willing to enter into their pain.  What should we do with these feelings that sap us? The writer of Hebrews says to lay them aside, and to disregard them as Jesus did. This doesn't mean denial. To lay something aside, one first needs to acknowledge it and take hold of it. The hostility went "into" Jesus; he didn't deny it. If feelings of shame or despair or   disappointment crop up, we need to acknowledge them. We need to feel what we feel. But as far as the race is concerned, we can't drop out because of them. We can't drop out because the race is to hard, or because we feel too bad. We can't give up following Christ because following Christ is too hard. We lay aside these feelings of quitting.  Yes, we hear them, but we don’t listen to them. At the most extreme level, it means we don't abandon Christ because life is too hard. At less extreme levels, we decide not to be paralyzed by what others think of us. We decide to serve and to love and to follow Jesus even if it exposes us to the  rejection of others.  This is especially true when it comes to those closest to us who don’t understand what it means to follow Jesus.  In the face of such overwhelming feelings, how is it possible to live this way? Brent Curtis adds this reflection:  

  If we deny the wounds or try to minimize them, we deny a part of our heart and end up living a shallow  optimism that frequently becomes a demand that the world be better than it is. On the other hand if we    embrace the arrows as the final word on life, we despair, which is another way to lose heart. To lose hope has the same effect on our heart as it would be to stop breathing. So how do we reconcile our deepest longings with our greatest fears?

How is it that we can move through difficult emotions? There is someone who can enable us.  By fixing our eyes on Jesus. By looking into his soul. By considering Him and learning from his example. What do we learn? We learn that the life of faith can be hard - seemingly, impossibly hard. It was for Jesus. But we also learn that joy is set before us. Just as the race is set before us, so is joy.  Jesus took his seat on a throne at the right hand of the Father and our destiny as His children is to  reign with him forever over the new and better creation.  It will be fulfilled (Revelation 22:5). Our relationships with each other, without sin, will be open, invigorating and   purposeful. All this is the joy set before us. All this motivates us to run with endurance and      

 to not be deterred by the hostility of others or feelings that would otherwise entangle us.

What motivates you?  What should motivate us?